Zhēn jīng zhǐnán 針經指南
Pointing-the-Way Guide to the Needle Classic by 竇傑 Dòu Jié (Dòu Hànqīng 漢卿, 撰)
About the work
A single-juan acupuncture-doctrinal compendium by 竇傑 Dòu Jié (zì Hànqīng 漢卿, 1196–1280, of Féixiāng 肥鄉, ancient Míng 古洺, in modern Héběi); printed posthumously by his disciple 牛良祐 Niú Liángyòu in Yuánzhēn 元貞 1 (1295). The collected work contains: (1) the famous Biāoyōu fù 標幽賦, Dòu’s signature rhapsody on acupuncture diagnosis-and-therapy (the title means “Pointing into the Recesses [of acupuncture method]”) — this is the principal foundational text of post-Sòng acupuncture didactics; (2) the Liúzhù bāxué 流注八穴 (“Eight Confluent Acupoints” doctrine) — the foundational late-Sòng theory according to which eight master-points connect the twelve regular channels with the eight extraordinary vessels (chōngmài 衝脈 via Gōngsūn 公孫; rènmài 任脈 via Lièquē 列缺; dūmài 督脈 via Hòuxī 後谿; dàimài 帶脈 via Línqì 臨泣; yīnwéi 陰維 via Nèiguān 內關; yángwéi 陽維 via Wàiguān 外關; yīnqiāo 陰蹺 via Zhàohǎi 照海; yángqiāo 陽蹺 via Shēnmài 申脈); and (3) the Zhēn jīng zhǐnán prose chapters on needle manipulation. The Bāxué doctrine — propagated through Dòu’s disciples and through the Yuán-Míng acupuncture-textbook tradition (王國瑞 Wáng Guóruì’s Yùlóng jīng KR3ee008, 徐鳳 Xú Fèng’s Zhēnjiǔ dàquán KR3ee002) — became the conceptual basis of the Língguī bāfǎ chronoacupuncture system.
Abstract
Dòu Hànqīng (the zì by which he is universally known in the medical tradition) was a Jīn-Yuán transitional figure: he served as a teacher in the Jīn court before serving under the Mongols, where he rose to the title Tàishī 太師 (Grand Preceptor); the biographical postscript in Niú Liángyòu’s 1295 preface gives him the formal title of Tàishī but emphasizes that “he transmitted his medical learning to the world” (以醫學傳於世). The Liúzhù bāxué doctrine is presented in Dòu’s work as a transmission from “a recluse of Shǎoshì” 少室隱者, received by Dòu from a Shānrén 宋子華 Sòng Zǐhuá — typical of Sòng-Yuán medical-Daoist framing. The historicity of this lineage is unverifiable, but the Bāxué doctrine itself is one of the most important conceptual innovations in premodern Chinese acupuncture and remains foundational to modern East-Asian acupuncture practice. The work was widely reprinted in the Míng (Wáng Guóruì included an annotated Biāoyōu fù in KR3ee008); it survives in the SKQS recension and in late-Qīng reprints. The composition window 1180–1241 followed here brackets the formative phase of Dòu’s clinical practice; the work’s date of printed circulation is 1295.
Translations and research
- Bob Flaws (trans.), The Classic of Difficulties: A Translation of the Nan Jing, Boulder, 2004 — for the conceptual background.
- 黄龍祥 Huáng Lóngxiáng (ed.), Zhōngguó zhēnjiǔ shǐ tújiàn (2003) — Dòu Hànqīng as the foundational figure of the bāmài jiāohuì doctrine.
- Pirog, John E., The Practical Application of Meridian Style Acupuncture, Pacific View Press, 1996 — modern reception of the Biāoyōu fù and the eight confluent points.
Other points of interest
The Biāoyōu fù is the second most-memorized acupuncture didactic poem in the East-Asian tradition (after the Yùlóng gē). The eight confluent points it codifies remain the foundation of Bāfǎ chronoacupuncture.
Links
- Sìkù quánshū zǒngmù tíyào, Zǐbù · Yījiā lèi.
- Wikidata Q19905116 (针经指南)
- 針經指南 jicheng.tw
- Kanseki DB